Bringing Up Father — buf400521

Four panels track a domestic skirmish between Jiggs, the Irish immigrant turned nouveau-riche, and his formidable wife Maggie. She lectures him on appreciating life's finer things during what appears to be a city stroll; he mutters he'd never get the chance anyway. A flashback panel — rendered in bold silhouette — has Maggie recalling Newcastle, Pennsylvania and her pre-prosperity days. The argument peaks with Maggie invoking the old Ripalotti laundry where Jiggs proposed, until the final panel deposits them before a *Silence Please* sign, where Jiggs exhales with relief. George McManus's ligne claire draftsmanship — crisp outlines, spotted blacks, expressive gesture — helped establish the visual conventions that daily newspaper strips handed directly to the first comic books of the late 1930s.